Psychiatric Hospital & Abandoned Cemetery

Psychiatric Hospital & Abandoned Cemetery

About

Take a walk through the famous Bohnice Psychiatric Hospital and towards its historic abandoned graveyard, where you will be introduced to the intense and at times dark history of the field of psychiatry. Your guide will lead you through a maze of buildings rich in both history and controversy from an antient times to present day. Be prepared to enter a whole new different world stained with torturous and deadly treatments inflicted on the most unfortunate patients who occupied these wards for centuries. Learn of the torments of 19th and 20th century psychiatric treatments and the agonizing lives of the hospital’s inmates. And at last we will lead you on a path to the cemetery where in seemingly calm fellowship many souls lay at rest; history tells of a different story.

Tour Tickets

Days:
Wed, Fri, Sun (except Dec. 24, 25, 31)

Time:
4:00 pm

Duration:
3.5 hours

Includes:

Transportation to the psychiatric hospital and towards the cemetery, and back to the city centre, guiding service

On this tour we cover

The vast grounds of the Bohnice Psychiatric Hospital
Various buildings part of the complex which include among others newly reconstructed Pavillion 26, Pavillions for patients with protective treatment, the Church of St. Venceslas, the Sanatorium, the Central Crisis Centre and the Central Patient Admission Office
The surroundings of the abandonned Hospital Graveyard
Viewpoint overlooking the Valley nearby

Highlights

Introduction to the history of Psychiatry in Europe from Medieval times to modern days
Learn about various methods used to cure mental illnesses and of the famous Rosenham experiment
Learn of past burial rituals in the Bohemian Lands
Discover more about life in the Bohnice Psychiatric Clinic and hear of stories of some past and current infamous patients occupying these wards
An eerie promenade around the abandoned cemetery which has attracted many lovers of mystics

Tour Details

Far more than any other kind of sickness, mental illnesses have for centuries been subject to prejudices and even brutal treatments. The beautiful grounds of the Bohnice Psychiatric Hospital provide the perfect start for a walk through time. This journey through the institutions’s history will also allow you to explore the origins of psychiatry in Europe.

On this tour, you will be taken to the Bohnice Psychiatric Clinic on the outskirts of the centre of Prague. We will provide you with a unique and detailed insight into the establishment’s history and of the methods used on patients suffering from mental disorders which may be seen today as both shocking and incomprehensible. From mystic rituals in Medieval times to more recent treatments such as lobotomies, we will take you on a historical ride into the field of psychiatry. This will also include a reflexion on treatments influenced by the financial interests of the pharmaceutical industry which at times only further enhanced the harm done to patients and their loved ones. This breathtaking walk through the institution’s grounds will allow every enthusiast to be closer to the tragic past of many of Bohemia’s stigmatised patients.

This eerie promenade will also lead you towards the Asylum’s famous abandonned graveyard where patients, criminals and many other lost souls were once laid to rest. However, tread carefully on the way, the forgotton souls who have never found peace may still roam around the clinic‘s seemingly tranquil grounds.

All our tours start from PRAGUE TRIPS & TICKETS, Tynska 7 in Prague’s Old Town, just a few minutes’ walk from the Old Town Square.